Ok, so there are no tricks here. The caveat is that we used a lot of existing items we already had so we really didn't need a whole lot of additional things before it was ready to go. Now that being said, I still think it's pretty impressive how we were able to bridge that gap under $500. I'm going to break everything down exactly how we did it so if you're still interested then please do read on.
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| Bedroom |
Check out our listing: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/51250134 Background
My husband worked on suiting the basement as soon as he purchased the property back in 2013. The basement was semi finished so he worked toward completing the wall division, plumbing, and electrical. We also purchased all the kitchen cabinets and appliances during a moving sale, sealed and tiled the shower ourselves.
Over the next 2 and a half years, we had a tenant that lived there. We got to experience how it was like to have someone living directly underneath us. Because the house is primarily hardwood and laminate, some muffled sounds do travel up and down. And despite our stellar tenant, my husband felt somewhat exhausted having someone always around, so close to us, being able to hear them and know that they can hear us.
After our tenant moved out, we decided to reclaim the basement and turned it into an office and gym, complete with a yoga room. It was super fun setting them up and we really enjoyed having more space. Especially when the Covid pandemic hit and we both had to work from home, everything we needed was already set up.
But Covid was also a wake up call in emphasizing what's most important in life, and what we decided was to work towards a plan of early retirement, perhaps even taking a gap year as soon as 2023. This decision did not get adopted easily. We went through a lot of reflection and discussions and I will likely share more about that in another post. But anyway, what came out of that, was a push to pay off our mortgage and increase our wealth as much as possible before 2023 so we can feel more confident about taking this audacious mid-career break.
We started brain storming the types of side hustles we'd be willing to do and defining how our approach was going to be. I've always felt that we should utilize the basement more since we went through all the trouble of suiting it. My husband knows that he doesn't want another long-term tenant downstairs, so Airbnb became the option he was willing to try.
The Pros and Cons
There's obviously pros and cons with every decision we make, below is a list of criteria that we thought about when comparing renting our basement long-term vs short-term.
- Flexibility: Airbnb provides more flexibility for us as we are committing to having people in our space one night/week at a time instead of a year at a time. If we think it's too disruptive to our lives, we can stop at any point with little to no notice.
- Rate: Airbnb allows us to charge higher rates compared to long-term tenants. This will allow us to make a decent amount of money even without someone constantly occupying the space.
- Effort: Airbnb does take a lot more work. With cleaning required in between each stay and an increased amount of supplies, repairs, and maintenance, we knew we had to be ready to put in some sweat equity.
- We discussed this and pretty easily agreed that we're willing to do the work. It's not something that bothers us too much and so the effort required wasn't a large deterrent.
- Risk: The transient nature of having short-term guests mean opening ourselves up to potential risks. There is the risk of damage to the property, to furniture, items, and even the potential of loud, disruptive, or undesirable people in our home despite the fact that guests have to agree to a bunch of terms and house rules.
- Airbnb does have their Host Guarantee and Host Protection Insurance, but in most cases, if the damage is minimal, hosts likely will just absorb this cost as part of their operating expenses.
- We've read articles online and know that the majority of guests are really good, but this was the biggest unknown to us. Ultimately, the only way we'll find out if this element is significant enough for us to stop hosting is to give it a try, to gain the experiences, and make a decision for ourselves.
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| Living area |
Comfort & Safety
There are all sorts of accommodations on
Airbnb. Because we're just testing the waters and we don't know when we'll feel compelled to stop hosting, I wanted to make sure we keep our initial investment as low as possible without compromising the safety and comfort of our guests. Being frequent travelers and having stayed in more than a dozen
Airbnbs ourselves, we know what makes a place the home away from home people want to stay in. If things go well, we can then improve our listing bit by bit.
Existing Items
Out of everything we had to set up, these were things we already had, and therefore didn't cost us anything:
- IKEA lounge chair
- Barcelona chair
- Wall clock
- IKEA cabinet
- Kitchen island
- Dining table & chairs
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| TV System |
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| Barcelona Chair |
The Bed
The most important thing is a comfortable bed. We have stayed in many places where this almost broke our vacation. Having a good nights rest not only makes your stay enjoyable, it makes the entire trip more enjoyable. I remember having traveled from one
Airbnb with subpar bed to another way with just a normal bed and felt the humongous divide between the two. We were so amazed that we checked the mattress and bought the exact same one ourselves a few years later.
After looking on Kijiji for a few days, we found a bedframe we liked through a moving sale. The owner had his things in a storage unit and we paid $175 for all the contents. We were initially only after the bed frame, but we really lucked out as everything this person owned was in perfect condition. We got all of the following items from this purchase alone:
- IKEA TARVA queen size bed frame
- IKEA 4 level MALM dresser (this is an item that IKEA recalls, and we were able to get $125 by returning it)
- IKEA MATRAND queen size memory foam mattress in perfect condition. Honestly it looked barely used and was even kept in a mattress bag
- 2 chairs
- 2 small end tables
- And RCA 28" TV
- An H2O steam cleaner mop
- 2 pillows
- Pots & pans & dishes & glasses & cups
- A laundry basket, hangers, and a Black & Deck iron
In the end, after selling a few of these items, we essentially got 70% of what we need for $20.
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| The bed |
Linens
After washing the mattress cover, we went to IKEA to get some new bed sheets and towels. Till this day, this is still the largest cost for us and will continue to grow as they get worn out. I like grey colored things but my husband said it always make him feel better to be able to see whether the sheets are clean, so in the end, we went with white.
- IKEA NATTJASMIN fitted sheets (x2) - $24.99 ea.
- IKEA NATTJASMIN duvet cover with 2 pillow cases - $49.99 ea.
- IKEA LUDDROS pillow protector (x4) - $6.99 ea.
Business Registration
We first called our insurance company to see how much additional it would cost us to insure short-term rentals. They told us that if we don't anticipate renting over 180 days a year, there would be no premium increases.
As mentioned, part of the whole point of choosing
Airbnb over long term tenants is to not have someone constantly living in our house. So we definitely have no intentions of maximizing occupancy. 180 days a year, or half the time, is more than what I had imagined doing so that was more than good enough.
To properly run an
Airbnb in Calgary one needs to apply for a business license. Usually the City of Calgary Short-Term Rental business license is $100, but they've been waiving it as part of the support they're providing folks during Covid, so we didn't have to pay anything for that either.
Carpets
Oh boy these carpets took us on quite the journey. We already had the white one you see in the living area and the red one under the kitchen island, but wanted to get a few more so we can dampen the sound traveling upstairs as much as possible. We originally got 3 more from Kijiji, one for free, one for $20, and one for $10, and decided to wash them along with all of the carpets we use upstairs as well.
We paid around $40 for a carpet cleaner and went to work. Little did we know that some stains are really hard to get out and in addition, if you don't wash the soap off completely, it leaves a tiny bit of sticky feeling on the fibers, especially if you run your fingers through the carpets.
So, in order to save money on getting these carpets, we probably put in a total of 30+ hours dealing with them over the course of a week. Luckily it was the week we got those 38 degree days so they dried up super fast.
This was a huge lessons learned for us. Next time we are definitely not going through the trouble again, as there are plenty of nice new carpets for around $60-80.
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| Dining Room |
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| Dining Room |
Entrance
We have quite a bit of space in the entry way so I decided to put a secretary desk there. We found something on Kijiji and picked it up for $40.
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| Entrance |
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| Entrance |
Other Household Items
There were a significant amount of random household items that we had to get, and they did really add up as well:
- Drawer liners - $20
- Door mat, shoe tray, garbage bin - $40
- Hooks, new door lock, fire extinguisher - $100
- TV casting dongle - $30
- Body wash, shampoo, conditioner, toilet paper, salt & pepper, oil, sugar...etc - $40
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| Bathroom |
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| Bathroom |
Another thing that's important to us is a clean and well functioning bathroom. There's nothing like a hot shower that gets rid of all the fatigue and washes the day away. In certain countries, space is very limited and it can be hard to get a spacious enough bathroom, luckily the bathroom in our suite is very large so all we have to make sure is that it's well kept and clean.
Total
In the end, we were able to furnish the entire suite in about 3 weeks and our total set up cost was $483.73.
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| Our home & Airbnb location |
Since launching our listing on
Airbnb, we've been getting really great traffic and already have 5 bookings. Seeing how busy it got, I immediately went back and purchased a ton more additional stock so we can turn things around quickly in case we need to. We've also upgraded our exterior motion censor light, and made custom thank you cards for our guests. So definitely check our our listing if you're curious, and if you or your friends / family are ever visiting Calgary, we've love to host you!
